 |
| Image credit: CAIB |
|
| NASA Starts Packing up Columbia Debris |
| Sep 10, 2003 - With the Columbia accident investigation largely complete, workers at the Kennedy Space Center have begun packing up the 84,000 pieces of debris from the disaster. Unlike the debris from Challenger, which was packed away into two abandoned missile silos after the 1986 disaster, the material from Columbia will probably be made available for research. It may also show up in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, but NASA hasn't decided if it's appropriate or not. Officials expect to have the hanger clear of debris by the end of September. |
|
|
|
 |
| Image credit: NASA/JPL |
|
| NASA Proposes to Search for Smaller Asteroids |
| Sep 10, 2003 - Five years ago NASA began a program to discover 90% of potential Earth-crossing asteroids larger than 1 km. 60% of the 1,000 to 1,200 large Near Earth Asteroids have already been found, and the search should be complete by 2008. But objects below 1 km can still be devastating, so NASA is proposing a new survey to track hundreds of thousands of these smaller objects. The new report proposes that NASA spend $236 million over the course of 20 years to find 90% of these smaller, but still devastating, objects. Another option would be to build a space-based tracking system which would increase the cost to $397 million but cut the search time down to just seven years. |
|
|
|
 |
| Image credit: NASA |
|
| Satellites Help Forecasters Predict Hurricanes |
| Sep 10, 2003 - Weather forecasters are turning to data from a fleet of satellites to help predict how conditions might turn into hurricanes that could ravage the coastal areas of Eastern North America. Tropical storms typically appear off the coast of Africa from June to November; some of these will turn into hurricanes depending on many factors. Satellites can now spot many of the warning signs, including a sea surface temperature of at least 27.8 degrees Celsius, rotating winds above the ocean, air temperature, humidity, and finally rainfall intensity. |
|
|
|
 |
| Image credit: NASA |
|
| NASA Approves Mirror for James Webb Telescope |
| Sep 10, 2003 - NASA announced today that it has selected a beryllium-based mirror technology for the 6.5 mirror on the James Webb Space Telescope - the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. The primary mirror will actually be made up of 18 hexagonal-shaped segments, giving it 2.5 times more surface area than Hubble's mirror; but it will be one-third the weight. Construction of the mirror will begin next year, and the telescope is expected to launch some time after 2011. |
|
|
|
|